Georgetown in Washington, District of Columbia — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

An Industrial Georgetown

By Allen C. Browne, April 18, 2015

1. An Industrial Georgetown Marker

Inscription. If you could have walked along the towpath here in the 19th and early 20th century, your senses would have been overwhelmed by industrial pollution. The dust from coal being unloaded from canal boats fogged the air. The stench of animal fat being mixed with lye at Hoffmyer's Tannery and Soap Factory would have overpowered you. The groan of water wheels powering four, grist, and paper mills would have been thunderous. A noisy, dusty and sometimes dangerous place, the canal brought raw goods such as coal, grain, wood, and stone to fuel Georgetown's bustling manufacturing district.

Today the evidence of Georgetown's industrial past is found in the architecture of buildings along the canal. Evidence of water outlets, bricked up chutes, smokestacks, and block and tackle still remain on many buildings. Reborn as offices, homes, and shops, the warehouses and mills of yesterday testify to Georgetown's humble beginnings and early struggle for prosperity.

View from the Aqueduct Bridge looking east in 1900. The Washington Monument is faintly visible above the roofline on the far right.

By Allen C. Browne, March 2, 2013

8. Horse

Architectural detail on nearby building

Credits. This page was last revised on February 10, 2018. This page originally submitted on April 24, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland. This page has been viewed 441 times since then and 28 times this year. Last updated on January 27, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Silver Spring, Maryland. Photos:1, 2. submitted on April 24, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland. 3. submitted on January 27, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Silver Spring, Maryland. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. submitted on April 24, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.